[786] Alpha Fish (4)
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Mitochondrial Eve was powerful because it could pass an individual's experiences to the next generation one hundred percent.
They divided like cells even before they took the name Teraje, absorbing the history of the world.
Then, by reintegrating that and passing it on, they built a vast database.
History Search.
What Woorin found in that near-complete archive was the first meeting between Habitz and Abella.
"Meeting Habitz changed Abella's fate."
A faint smile hovered at the corner of Abella's mouth as she recalled that time while listening to Woorin's explanation.
"Playing with Mr. Habitz was so much fun. Unlike other adults, he knew what I liked."
Even if Habitz was labeled the most evil person in the world, no one could deny what Abella said.
"I know about the witch's fate too. People have told me since I was born."
The Yus were a tribe that understood the Law.
"If Mr. Habitz hadn't smashed my cursed fate, I'd already be a witch living in pain."
The story went back fourteen years.
"Let's dig through here and make an underground channel. Big enough for a giant frog to get through."
On the sandy shore of the fishing spot, Habitz and Abella were absorbed in building a sandcastle.
It had already been more than ten days with empty rods jutting toward the sea, but the shark Habitz wanted still hadn't bitten.
"Do you know a lot about castles?" Abella asked, brushing sand off her face after tamping the ground flat.
"Of course I do. It's my home."
"Are you an emperor?"
"Huh? Emperor?"
"You said your name is Habitz. Adults say the emperor of this country is called Habitz."
"Oh, that's Habitz the Sixteenth. That person isn't me."
"Can two people have the same name as the emperor?"
"Hmm. I guess so. There are probably hundreds of people named Habitz that I know of."
Abella muttered sullenly. "I wish you were the emperor."
Habitz, finishing the underground channel with delicate movements, asked belatedly, "Why the emperor? Seems kind of boring."
"Because you can do anything. Mom said to change my fate you'd have to be at least an emperor."
"Fate? What's that?"
After ten days together, Abella finally drew out the darkness in her heart.
"The tribesmen say I'll become a witch. My mother is a witch, so she's always selling herself to men."
The Yus tribe was in decline.
"In the past, Yus's Law was strong, and many people came for readings, so they could overcome the witch's fate. But they say that time is over now."
The tribespeople could not cut off the name Yus—their line had thousands of years of history.
"Now we can't do readings. So the women with the witch's fate wander the village and sell themselves."
In Bardol village, where the Yus had settled, fishermen and pirates lived side by side.
In truth there was little difference between them.
"I don't want to go back to the village. Adults keep coming and touching me. Once my mom got angry and men much bigger than you beat her nearly to death."
"So being a witch sounds no fun."
"Of course not. What good is that? Just thinking about being a witch is awful. I want to grow flowers."
"Then don't. Don't be a witch."
Abella shook her head. "They say the Law can't be changed. Mother holds me at night and cries. She says she's sorry. But she says that in the end I'll have no choice but to become a witch."
"I don't get it."
"Of course you don't. Only gypsies know."
"Why would you become a witch if you don't want to? Just don't do it."
Complete chaos.
To Habitz—who lived outside the rules of what ought to be—the Law was a meaningless notion.
"Do what you want. It's better to live happily. No reason to do something boring."
"...Can I do that?"
Lost in thought, Abella brightened into a smile.
"Anyway, it's fun now because I play with you. I used to be alone in the forest all the time."
A beautiful sandcastle was finished—
"I like it too. There's no one to play with at the castle. They whine at the slightest thing."
Habitz mimicked the terrified faces of the people around him, and Abella clutched her belly laughing.
"Haah, I wish we could play together every day."
"Then let's play every day."
Abella hesitated. "But you're an adult. Mom said not to bother adults because they're busy."
"It's fine. Playing with you is the most fun. I don't have to do other things. What does it matter?"
Abella's eyes sparkled. "You're very different from the adults I know."
"How so?"
"They don't tell me what to do or what not to do, and they don't act annoyed by me."
"Do other adults do that?"
"That's not even the half of it. They nag so much—be a good person, hold your dishes like this..."
Habitz twirled his mustache. "Hmm, I've never heard such things in my life, so I don't know…"
And then he realized.
"They say those things because they're scared. To me, adults always look terrified."
"Scared of what?"
Habitz shrugged. "Puhaha! I don't know. What on earth are they trembling about? Like there's a single tightrope across an invisible cliff they're trying to walk straight on."
He wiggled two fingers as if walking.
"I walked around, and there isn't any tightrope. You don't fall no matter where you go. Of course you don't. But they act like they don't know that."
"Hmm. So you don't fall, you say."
"If you want to have fun, give people what they want. If you don't want to play with them, you don't have to listen. Being a little bored is the only downside…"
Habitz comforted her. "If you're not afraid, you can do anything. Grow flowers. Don't listen to that boring witch stuff."
Abella didn't understand every word, but it was the best consolation she'd ever heard.
"Yes! I'll grow flowers from today! Thank you, Mr. Habitz!"
Habitz grinned, baring his teeth.
From that day on, whenever they met, Habitz and Abella went into the forest to gather flowers.
One flower a day.
They didn't know the names or breeds, but being able to do what they wanted was enough.
Still no sign of catching a shark.
"Should I go further out to catch one?"
Sitting at the fishing spot, Habitz yawned lazily while staring at the boundless sea.
"Why is she so late today?"
Abella had never been late, but she didn't show up that day.
"Does she not want to play with me anymore?"
Habitz missed her, so he sprang up and made for her village.
From the village entrance, where the briny smell of the coast hung in the air, he could tell there was a commotion.
"Damned gypsies! We took in these homeless things and they stab us in the back like this!"
When the village leader Hekster kicked a pale, battered woman, Abella ran out.
"Waaah! Mama!"
"Abella! Why did you come? Run now!"
Abella shook her head. "No! I won't leave my mom!"
The pirates, tired of the gypsies settling in two months ago, tried to lay hands on Abella.
Her mother resisted desperately and left scratch marks on Hekster's cheek, which set things off.
"If this isn't your kind of place, you have no right to be here. How dare you touch me? I'll kill you all right here!"
The Yus chieftain stepped in front of the mother and daughter. "You said you'd work! You followed everything we suggested!"
"Work? Do you think you lot can go out to sea? Do you think the houses, food, and chickens we gave you came for free?"
"We'll leave! Let us go!"
Hekster snorted. "Fine, leave. But you'll have to return everything you've been fed up until now. That's only right, isn't it?"
Pushing the chieftain aside with his foot, Hekster grabbed Abella by the hair and dragged her from her mother's arms.
"Mama! Mama!"
A clay vase Abella had made shattered and a nameless flower was trampled underfoot.
"No! Please, not Abella—!"
"Shut up! This barely covers the cost! Take her!"
As Hekster's men slung Abella over a shoulder and headed for the barn, the chieftain crawled on the ground and shouted, "You filthy bastards! What crime has a child committed?"
"Crime? Of course there's a crime. The crime of having no money."
The men snickered. Then a voice called from beyond the crowd.
"Abella~. Let's play~."
Silence fell in an instant. Everyone turned to look at Habitz.
"What are you doing here?"
The pirates reflexively drew their swords and their faces drained white as if seeing a ghost.
"The Desire King...?"
Clang— the pirates' weapons dropped to the ground.
"Huh, ugh!"
Although many had never seen him in person, there wasn't a single resident who didn't know Habitz.
'Damn it! God! Why! Why!' they thought.
Habitz was here.
'It's over.'
No one knew why he'd come to such a backwater fishing village, but one thing was certain.
'We're all dead.'
The Desire King showed no mercy.
"Mr. Habitz!"
Abella slipped free from the exhausted pirate and ran to him in tears.
"It's okay, it's okay."
Habitz lifted her up and walked toward the pirates, patting the girl's back.
"They scared me, Mr. Habitz! They trampled my flowers! They beat my mother until she nearly died!"
"It's okay, it's okay."
Hekster's hand trembled when he realized Abella knew Habitz.
'What have I done?'
Even stabbing the flank of a sleeping devil with a knife couldn't compare to the stupidity of what he'd done.
"Sire, we—!"
"Die."
Habitz cut him off.
"Abella cried, so I don't want to play. Die."
"Aaaaah!"
Hekster screamed as if trying to smash minds, drew his sword, and slit his own throat in one horizontal cut.
"Gah!"
Seeing their leader fall to a single stroke, the other men drew their blades and followed his path.
'This is the only salvation!'
If Habitz decided to properly have fun, death wouldn't be the end.
While most of the pirates chose suicide, the villagers lacked the courage to follow.
"Captain of the Guard."
No sooner had Habitz spoken than a shadow slid forward and took shape on the ground.
"Obey my order."
A white mask with a painted mustache stood, cloaked head to toe in black, twin curved swords crossed at his chest.
"Take the villagers alive. All are to receive the Anm sentence."
"Understood."
To gouge out eyes, cut off noses, tear eardrums, pull out tongues, then sever arms and legs and flay the skin—Anm condemned a person to a lifetime of pain while kept alive with infusions.
"No! No, you can't do that!"
As the villagers rushed to seize the pirates' weapons, the Captain of the Guard's shadow moved faster than the wind.
"Kill me! Please! Just kill me!"
People fainted one after another.